Costly traffic jams quickly becoming longer
Costly traffic jams quickly becoming longer
Traffic jams are not just a phenomenon we see during the holiday period. According to the figures provided by ADAC, there were some 723,000 traffic jams in Germany in 2017. The total length of all these traffic jams combined was calculated at around 1.45 million kilometers. This meant that the combined traffic jam length had more than tripled since 2011 – with the figure for this year standing at just 450,000 kilometers.
Despite these shocking figures, Germany is not the worst nation in the world for traffic jams. A ranking of the cities most susceptible to traffic jams all over the world, which was put together by sat-nav manufacturer TomTom, reads like a list of mega-cities in newly industrialized countries. Sitting in first place is the Indian city of Mumbai, followed by Bogota and Lima in South America.
The daily madness of traffic jams is not just something that tests the patience of those sitting in them, but it is also a significant economic factor. When sat in traffic jams, vehicles consume more fuel, emit more pollutants and generate more noise. The delays caused by gridlock also cost companies a great deal of money. Experts estimate that the economic damage caused to Germany by traffic jams stands at around EUR 250 million. Per day!